Severe, erudite and occasionally contentious, Steiner writes from the old high-culture position that books are not merely objects of study but moral, metaphysical and historical events.

In No Passion Spent, George Steiner gathers essays from 1978–1996 on literature, language, theology, philosophy and the strange burden of serious reading. The range is very Steiner: the Hebrew Bible, Homer, Shakespeare, Kafka, Kierkegaard, Simone Weil, Husserl, Freud, tragedy, translation, interpretation, and the vanishing conditions of deep attention. Best for readers interested in literary criticism, European intellectual history, theology, translation, and the argument that language is never just language — unfortunately, the man did have a point. About other things, he almost certainly did not. Take that as you will.

Faber and Faber paperback edition, 1997. First paperback printing. Some light general shelf wear to cover and edges, with mild rubbing/creasing visible; internally clean and sound.